The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-02-25

the muscles in his hands rose like bulbs
as he hung to the wheel and pitted his
strength against the blows of the seas
upon the rudder.
Brave, honest fellow! true seaman!
true Englishman! Well would it be
for sailors were there more Of his kind
among them to set them examples of
honest labor, noble self-sacrifice and
duty ungrudgingly performed!
The seas struck the ship heavily as
she rounded to. 1 feared that she
would have too much headsail to lie
close, for the f0resail and fOretop-sail
were in ribbins they might show
enough roaring canvas when coupled
with the foretop-mast staysail to make
her pay of, we having no aftersail set
to counterbalance the effect of them.
However, she lay steady, that is. as
the compass goes. but rolled fearfully.
wallowing deep like a ship half full OF
water. and shipped such tremendous
seas that constantly expected to hear
the crash of the galley stove in.
l now shaded my eyes and looked
astern. The horizon was dull blank;
nothing was in sight but the rugged
line of water and the nearer, deep,
dark, wider shadow of the leaden pour
ing clouds.
CHAPTER XII
In bringing the ship close to the
wind IN this terrible gale, without
springing spar, we had done what l
never should have believed practicable
to four men. taking into consideration
the size of the ship and the prodigious
force of the wind; and when 1 looked
aloft and considered that only few
hours before, so to speak, the ship was
carrying all the sail that could be put
upon her, and that three men had
stripped her of it and put her under a
close-reefed maintop-sail fit to encoun-
ter a raging hurricane, could not
help thinking that We had right to
feel proud of our endurance AMI spirit.
There was no difficulty now in hold
ing the wheel, and, had no worse sea
than was now running been promised us.
the helm might have been dashed and
the vessel lain as comfortably as q
smack with her foresail over to wind
ward.
The torn sails were making hideous
noise on the yards forward, and as
there was no earthly reason why this
clamor should be suffered to last, l
called to Cornish to get his knife ready
and help me to cut the canvas away
from the jack-stays. We hauled the
braces taut to steady the yards. and
then went aloft, and in ten minutes
severed the fragments of the foresaii
and topsail, and they blew up into the
air like paper, and were carried nearly
half a mile before they tell into the sea.
The wind was killing up aloft, and l
was heartily glad to get on deck again.
not only to escape the wind. but on
account of the foretop-mast and top-gal-
lant-mast, both of which had been
heavily tried. and now rocked heavily
as the ship rolled, and threatened to
come down with the weight of the
yards upon them.
But neither Cornish nor 1 had
strength enough in us to stay the
masts more securely; our journey
aloft and our sojourn on the yards,
and our fight with the wind to MAIN
tain our hold. had pretty well done for
us; and in Cornish took notice of that
air of lassitude and dull indifference
which creeps upon shipwrecked men
when worn out with their struggles,
and which resembles. in its way, the
stupor which falls upon persons who
are perishing of cold.
1t was fair, however, since l had
some rest, that should now take a
spell at the Wheel and therefore told
Cornish to go to the cabin lately occu-
pied by Stevens, the ships carpenter.
and turn in, and then crawled aft to
the poop and desired the boatswain to
90 below and rest himself, and order
the steward. who had not done one
tenth of the work we had performed,
to stand by ready to come OH deck il
should call to him.
held my post at the wheel. being
anxious that the boatswain and Cornish
should recruit their strength by sleep,
for if one or the other of them broke
down, then, indeed, our case would be
deplorable.
The force of the wind was stupcndous,
and yet the brave maintop-sail stood
it; but not an hour had passed since
the two men Went below when a mon
ster wave took the ship on the star
board bow and threw her up, rolling
at the same time an immense body of
water cnto the decks; her stern, where
I was crouched. sunk in the hollow
level with the sea, then, as the levia-
than wave rolled under her counter,
the ships bows fell into a prodigious
trough with sickening, whirling
swoop. Ere she could recover, another
great sea rolled upon her. burying her
forecastle, and rushing with the fury
of a cataract along the main-,leck.
Another wave like that and our fate
was sealed.
But happily these were exceptional
seas; smaller waves succeeded. and the
struggling, straining ship showed her.
self alive still.
Alive, but MANNED. That tremen-
dous swoop had carried away the jib-
boom and the forctop-gallant mast
the one close against the bowsprit
head, the other few inches above the
top-gallant yard. The mast, with the
royal-yard upon it, hung all in heap
against the fore-top mast, but Fortunate
~ kept steady, owing to the yard-arm
having jammed itself into the fore-top
mast rigging. The jib-boom was clean
gone adrift, and was washing away to
leeward.
This was no formidable accident,
though it gave the ship wrecked and
broken look. should have been we'll
pleased to see all three top-gallant
masts 60 over the side. for the weight
of the yards. swaying to and fro at
great angles, was too much for the
lower-masts, and not only strained the
decks, but the planking to which the
chain pilates were bOlted